Last Days
by Ultimate Guy Fieri 420
Summary: Following some kind of worldwide disaster, Iron-Man is one of the last superheroes on Earth, scouring the city for any signs of life.


**Last Days**

DATA LOG, ENTRY 1053. 11/29/2044: The streets are barren. Every time I come into the city, I wonder if it's worth it. Half of the entire world's population is dead. There hasn't been a living soul in New York in years. Even if someone had been living in the city, the mass gamma radiation most likely would've killed them by now. If it weren't for my armor, I'd be long dead. The world has changed so much.

I am the last surviving Avenger. To my knowledge anyways. We were all apart from one another when everything happened. I spent months trying to track them down after the incident. All I found were bodies. When there were bodies to be found, that is. I buried them one by one, filling caskets with costumes and weapons when there was nothing else to fill them with. With Jarvis gone, only I am left to tend to them.

While searching through some rubble today I found an arrow. I believe it belonged to Clint, or maybe that young girl he was always running around with. Kate, I think her name was. I brought it back to the mansion. I haven't decided yet what to do with it.

DATA LOG, ENTRY 1054. 12/1/2044: I almost relapsed today. It astounded me that I had gone so long since the incident without even thinking of taking a drink. I was searching through the mansion when I happened upon the liquor cabinet and it hit me. With the whole world gone to shit, why not enjoy myself a little? I had the glass halfway poured before I realized that I can't drink anymore. I've become so reliant on the suit that I no longer need the things that I once did to live. I don't eat, I don't drink, I don't even sleep anymore. The suit takes care of all of that for me. I dumped the whiskey down the drain and smashed the bottle.

DATA LOG, ENTRY 1055. 12/20/2044: I went on patrol again today. I found a few more corpses buried under rubble. The radiation had eaten away at their flesh so there was no way to recognize them. Civilians most likely. I used to ignore people like them, people that weren't rich or superhuman or special. What a fool I was. I'd give anything to have human contact again. It seems I'm not long for this place.

DATA LOG, ENTRY 1056. 12/21/2044: Today was an extremely eventful day. I went out on patrol again. Each day I hope to find something new. Today, I did that and more.

I had spent roughly one hour, thirty-six minutes, and eight seconds in the city, searching under collapsed buildings and old, abandoned cars. I was about to give up when something popped up on my radar. Something with a pulse. Something that was alive and was somehow able to withstand all the radiation. Something worth looking into.

My rockets kicked into overdrive and I raced in the direction of the signal. The closer I got the more my hope began to drain. To my knowledge, not a single hero had survived the incident. Almost none of them would be able to survive under these conditions if they had. What reason did I have to believe that this was one of the good guys? I had to prepare for the fact that this might not be a rescue, but a standoff. At least it was something.

I got nearer to the signal and lowered to the ground. I could hear him tearing away at the side of a building, metal scraping against metal. I approached slowly, preparing myself for the worst. His body was malformed, grotesquely defined muscle clinging to bone. His skin was a pale green and loose strands of graying hair clung to his head and forearms.

AUDIO RECORDING-DL 1056: IM: Identify yourself

His face was just as disgusting as the rest of him. If it weren't for the long claws extending from his hands I'm not sure I would've recognized him. The fiery red look in his eyes told me he didn't recognize me either.

AUDIO RECORING-DL 1056: IM: Logan?

He responded with a vicious snarl. His body had survived the radiation but his mind hadn't. He was crazed, more animal than man. I was standing before the last living superhuman aside from myself and he had been reduced to nothing more than a half-metal monster. I decided to make an attempt to address him by his other name.

AUDIO RECORDING-DL 1056: IM: Wolverine?

He threw his entire mass at me, claws first. It seemed as if his body had lost the ability to retract his claws, almost like some kind of animalistic adaptation. I looked down on him and wondered: Was this the next stage in evolution?

I caught him by the chest and threw him back to the ground. Dust scattered about, temporarily blinding him. I heard him cough. When the dust cleared, blood had become visible on his chin. I raised an arm and charged the canon.

AUDIO RECORDING DL 1056: IM: Stand down or-

Why I continued reasoning with him, I'm unsure. Clearly he was beyond logic, beyond words. He slashed at me, marking three inch deep incisions into my chest armor.

RECORDING 12/21/2044: ARM CANNON DISCHARGE

The blast tore off a bit of skin but didn't do much else. He continued pummeling me, burying his fists into my side. I realized that I was going to have to put him down. My first human interaction in years and it was going to have to end with death.

I raised my fists and brought them down on his skull. I heard a large crack as he fell backwards. His eyes closed. I approached his body, scanning for signs of life. Before I could finish, he was on me again.

He slashed at my throat and my helmet came off. It tumbled to the ground and he retreated back, truly horrified. I panicked at first before I realized what had happened. Logan, or what was left to him, didn't understand. Most of average intelligence wouldn't be able to understand, let alone a degenerative mutant. It was almost sad.

RECORDING 12/21/2044: ARM CANNON DISCHARGE.

I blasted right through his heart and he fell to the ground. Before he could get up, I ripped his head from his body. I couldn't take any chances. I re-assembled my helmet and picked up the remaining pieces of Wolverine. I had another hero to bury.

DATA LOG, ENTRY 1057. 12/24/2044: The hole is finished and the headstone is in place. It reads: "Logan, AKA Wolverine. Beloved X-Man and hero to his people." I decided to leave the birth and death dates unfilled as no one really knew when Logan was born. No one would see it anyways.

I couldn't risk re-attaching his head before burying him with the risk that his mutant healing factor might still bring him back to life. It was no wonder to me that he had gone insane. After continuously succumbing to the radiation and being forced back to life, it's easy to see how his mind could become so easily corroded. I only wonder how I didn't find him before. Where had he been? I suppose this means that I should keep going. Who knows what else might be out there.

Once he's buried I wander the cemetery. Almost every friend I've ever had can be found listed on one of these headstones. Steve. Peter. Pepper. Perhaps the strangest of them all is the first one I ever placed here, the first grave I ever dug. ANTHONY EDWARD STARK. I didn't bother writing anything else out. It just seemed vain.

As I looked over the final resting place of my human body, I wondered if I had done the right thing when I created the mental failsafe program. Is this any way to live? Is there still purpose for me out there? Immortality ain't all it's cracked up to be.

Today is Christmas Eve.

DATA LOG, ENTRY 1058. 1/1/2045: I've decided it's time for me to leave this place. There's nothing left for me here but bad memories. It's time that I finally move on and say goodbye to the life I once knew.

Avengers Mansion has been destroyed. There's no use for it anymore and there never will be. The cemetery has been kept intact, though I hope to never have to return to it. I've spent too much of my time pondering the lost lives of my comrades. I know that they have found peace and it's time that I do the same.

I'm not sure exactly where I'll go. California maybe, though I think I'm better off going outside of America. Perhaps there are people left in China or India. I think maybe I'll just leave this planet. I know enough about this world by now to know there's got to be something out there. Hopefully there's still humanity to be found. Who knows. Maybe there's still some way to restore this place to the way it used to be. Until then, I'll keep searching.

END LOG.


End file.
